A shoreline park on Salt Spring popular with island families is getting a modest facelift, as local officials approved a replacement play structure for the aging –– and unsafe –– playground equipment at Fulford’s Drummond Park.
The parks and recreation department has been fielding community concerns about the state of the play structure at Drummond for some time, according to manager Dan Ovington, specifically regarding the cracked slide that has been closed for several years.
Drummond Park sits on two one-acre lots fronting the water on Isabella Point Road, owned by the Fulford Community Hall Association (FCHA) and used extensively by the neighbourhood for children’s play and community events. Costs for operation and maintenance are borne by the Salt Spring Island Local Community Commission (LCC), whose members heard an update on the protracted permitting process as they approved the new structure.
The park sits at a registered archeological site, and a process that began more than a year ago is now at a 30-day referral stage, after which responses from First Nations will need to be considered well before work begins.
“There were some additional budget implications around having cultural monitors,” said Ovington, “bringing on archeologists to actually do the assessments and submit the permitting, which ate up a large portion of the initial construction budget.”
Additional funding from the CRD has been budgeted, according to a staff report, and the regional district has already approved $50,000 in Community Works funds, which joins $10,000 in reserves and a $5,000 contribution from the FCHA to reach the proposal’s cost.
A revision to the original plans included sourcing designs meant to minimize ground disturbance, Ovington said, and staff presented the LCC with a recommendation that fit with both the proposed footprint and the budget.